Toby Harnden was the Daily Telegraph's US Editor, based in Washington DC, from 2006 to 2011. Click here for Toby's website. Follow him on Twitter here @tobyharnden and on Facebook here. He is the author of the bestselling book Dead Men Risen: The Welsh Guards and the Defining Story Britain's War in Afghanistan.

America's nuttiest election candidate?

It's a hotly-contested title this year but Chris Young, a pony-tailed Democrat running for Mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, may very well be America's nuttiest election candidate. He's a man who's always running for office and always losing so he probably calculated he needed to pull a stunt or two. First he goes on television for an interview, looks down at a piece of paper and reads his answers in a monotone before bursting into song:

It was reported initially that Russo (who, as it happens, is running for Congress and Rhode Island lieutenant governor) had answered yes but she apparently later added the proviso "if he wins the election". Which sounds rather like a no to me.